Traveling internationally can be a great experience for a child, but many parents forget that when children travel, they are going to need a passport. Unfortunately, this realization will often come when it is late in the day and an expedited childrens passport is the only way to make the trip happen. It is always best to know all the passport laws to make sure there are no issues when planning a trip abroad with a child.
As with any type of passport, it is important to become familiar with U.S. passport law before acquiring a child passport. First of all, passports are required for any non-government international travel by U.S. citizens. This includes all citizens, even children and infants.
While there is one set of rules as they pertain to adults and there are specialty laws that pertain to children. One of the concerns of authorities is that a parent will unknowingly flee the country with a child. This is why both parents must sign a consent in order for the child to be able to get their passport. Doing this gives a little more reassurance that both parents know about the travel, even if the child is only traveling with one parent.
This special passport law means that an additional step has been added to the process, but other than that, the process is pretty similar to adults. Once the consent forms have been signed, the application process will go as a new passport application would. Just make sure that the consent form is properly done so that there will be no snags as the process moves forward.
Everyone has to have their photo taken for a passport before they apply, and a child is no different. To speed things up, it may be best to go to an establishment that takes the passport photos right on the spot and returns them right away. There are plenty of one-hour photo shops in malls that do this express passport service and the photos can be returned before the applicant finishes their shopping.
Before the application can be submitted, the dual consent form has to be properly filled out and signed by both parents. If the parents are divorced or living in separate cities, this can sometimes cause a problem, especially if expedited service is needed. This is actually the cause at times for the expedited service as it takes both parents so long to get the forms signed.
A normal passport will take about 6-8 weeks to get back. If the time frame that is left in inside of that window, the parents are going to get stuck paying a fee of $60 to have the passport back within three weeks. There are other services that can be provided at a higher cost if that time frame is still not quick enough.
When traveling abroad, it is best to have all the ducks in a row so that there are no issues at the last second. However, it is perfectly understandable to see how a child’s passport could slip the mind of the parents that they would need to get an expedited childrens passport. When this happens, know that there are several measures in place to make the express U S passport process as easy as it can be with the added pressure of a short turnaround time.
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